San Jose, Calif. – For now, the vault maneuver Alexander “Sasha” Artemev is attempting to master is simply known as a triple-twisting Yurchenko. But if the young gymnast from Morrison can become the first man to pull it off at a major international competition – like next month’s world championships – it will be forever known as an Artemev.
Artemev could have played it safe at the U.S. championships, but he went big with his trademark vault both nights. It remains a work in progress – he’s been having trouble with his landings – but there will be a huge payoff if he can stick it. It carries a high 7.0 start value.
“I’m still going to work it,” Artemev said of the potentially dangerous vault. “It doesn’t scare me. The triple twist, it’s something I’m looking for the future, because in this day and age you’ve got to step up your game. The Chinese, they’re all doing 7.0 vaults.”
But Olympic all-around champion Paul Hamm questioned the wisdom of Artemev’s vault Friday night after Justin Spring suffered an apparent ACL injury landing another difficult vault.
“I think it’s crazy,” Hamm said. “I don’t want to do stuff like that. You saw with Justin, that’s what happens when you do those vaults. If you push that hard, you eventually run into a situation where you hit the board wrong, come into the ground a little short, and if your knee’s straight, you have a torn ACL and you’re out for a year.”
Another problem: The vault is so risky, Artemev is reluctant to attempt it too often in practice.
“You can’t get repetitions too much, because it’s very dangerous,” said Artemev’s father and coach, Vladimir, a former Soviet gymnast.
But if his son can have a vault named after him? “I will be so happy for my Sasha,” Vladimir said, “because I love him so much.”
